


Roaring

by Maiden_of_Asgard



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Espionage, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), I Blame Tumblr, IN SPACE!, Prohibition, Reylo - Freeform, Roaring Twenties AU, Smuggling, let's see where this goes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:15:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22806931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maiden_of_Asgard/pseuds/Maiden_of_Asgard
Summary: It’s been over twenty years since the war was lost against the Empire at the Battle of Yavin, and the Galactic Empire continues to tighten its reins on the galaxy, outlawing anything and everything deemed to increase lawfulness and disorder.Rey of Jakku gets sent to infiltrate the den of Leia Organa, the fearsome leader of the largest gang of smugglers and Rebel fugitives the galaxy’s ever seen, on the orders of the Emperor. The last thing she’s expecting is for a sudden, overwhelming connection to roar to life between her and Organa’s son, the enigmatic Ben Solo.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 6
Kudos: 19





	Roaring

“What’s a dame like you doing in a place like this?” 

Rey was used to the question, and she brushed past the man standing between her and the bar. No one else would dare to allow such flagrant drinking and gambling to go on in public, not since the Empire cracked down on ‘law and order’ on Corellia. She’d come to one of the few places in the civilized galaxy where people openly converged to flaunt their wealth and lawless decadence in the face of the Empire. 

It made her skin crawl. 

She’d more or less raised herself out in the badlands of Jakku, a dusty, backwater planet where food was always scarce, but hardships weren’t. The lifeforms that now surrounded her probably wasted more food in a day than she’d had to eat for entire weeks. Her fist clenched by her side. 

They deserved the Emperor’s justice. She just had to get what  _ she’d _ come for first, before she carried out her mission. The Emperor would never know, and maybe - just maybe - Rey would finally be able to let go of the past and move on with her life. 

She leaned against the bar, smiling and batting her eyelashes at the man behind it. He was instantly recognizable from the files on her datapad, though she was a little shocked to find the Godmother’s only son and heir tending bar.  _ Ben Solo, _ she thought, a little unsettled when his dark eyes flickered with recognition. 

Rey schooled her features. “What does a girl have to do to get a drink around here?”

He leaned across the bar, and even then, he still towered over her. Rey reflexively patted her thigh, where a tiny mini-blaster was strapped in her garter, hoping it didn’t come to a scuffle. She was just there for information, not for a fight.

The music was loud, but his smooth, low voice somehow cut right through it, and Rey felt her knees go weak. “Say my name, sweetheart, and it’s yours.”

“Okay, tough guy,” Rey said, deciding that her best bet was to play along, “I’m game. What’s your name?”

“Ben.”

“Nice to meet you, Ben.”

He slid the drink across the bar. It was something pink and fizzy in a delicate little glass, and it would probably cost a small fortune if he actually made her lay out the credits for it. Most of the galaxy was busy guzzling moonshine that bordered on motor oil, and there she was, sipping fancy cocktails and chatting up Ben Organa-Solo, the guy who might’ve been heir to the whole kriffin’ galaxy, if the war had gone a little different.

Rey took a tiny sip. She’d never been able to afford anything on Jakku aside from water, and she’d never been tempted to experiment with any of the swill that the other scavengers concocted when they were trying to drown their sorrows. And then the Emperor… the Emperor kept her on a tight leash.  _ Discipline. _

If everything went well, she’d get to the Godmother somehow, and Leia Organa would spill about the location of the infamous Luke Skywalker, who’d been on the lam for almost twenty years. Rey’d deliver everything to the Emperor all neat and tidy, he’d pay her, and more importantly, maybe he’d finally -  _ finally _ \- train her in the ways of the Force. It wasn’t like she had any other options; everyone else who knew how to magic things around with the Force had kicked the bucket a long time ago.

“So,” she said, “you’re the bartender, Ben?”

“No, just wanted a drink.” He jerked his head towards the glitzy glass elevator near the back. “Bartender was a rat. He’s upstairs with Ma. She wanted to have a word with him.”

“Ma?”

The look he gave her was disappointed, like he knew she was only feigning ignorance. “Don’t play dumb, dollface,” he said. “You don’t come in here without knowing you’re in Leia Organa’s joint.”

“Okay, I’ll level with you, since you’ve been so friendly and all - I don’t really come to juice joints that often, Ben. I’ve  _ heard _ of her, but I didn’t figure people’d just go around calling the Godmother  _ ‘Ma’  _ like that.”

Ben snorted. “People don’t, unless they’re her son,” he said.

“Really?” she said, pretending to be impressed as she took another sip of her drink. Her red lipstick smudged on the glass, and she scrunched her nose in irritation and tried to wipe it away with her thumb. She wasn’t used to lipstick, or flirting, or sparkly, glitzy dresses, or any of  _ this. _

“That’s what they tell me,” Ben replied, knocking back a drink of his own, then pouring another. 

Rey surveyed the room, while trying to sneak peeks at Ben Solo from the corner of her eye without being too conspicuous. Tall, muscular, nice get-up - but with hair just a bit too shaggy to really be in style. He could feel the Force, too, from what she’d been told, but like her, she doubted he’d had anyone around to train him. She wondered if that was why she felt so oddly drawn to him, her curiosity taking on a life of its own. 

_ Don’t get distracted,  _ she told herself.

“You a blaster moll or something?” he asked her, nodding to some of the tough guys lingering at one of the tables across the room.

“Do I look like the kind of girl who goes with trigger-happy goons? You’re gonna hurt my feelings, Ben.”

He shrugged. “You never know. Want me to top that off, while I’m here?”

Rey realized belatedly that her nerves had led her to finish off her drink much more quickly than she’d planned. “Sure,” she said, and when she pushed it over to him, their fingers touched.

It felt like white-hot lightning burned through her bones, and Rey froze and met his eyes, the air ripped from her lungs. He looked every bit as shocked as she did; she felt like she could hear his heartbeat roaring through her veins alongside her own.

Ben didn’t move his hand away. “Damn,” he said. “That’s—”

“Gotta run,” Rey interrupted, snatching up her glass and her bag and hopping off of her barstool. “Um, nice talking to you, Ben.”

She’d already turned and started to scurry off to find some dark corner to process and regroup when she heard his voice trailing after her. “Nice talking to you, Rey.”

Rey stopped in her tracks.

She hadn’t told him her name.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like this almost borders on a crackfic because of how I’ve decided to haphazardly smash together the Roaring Twenties with Star Wars canon, so… please enjoy 🖤


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